Caught the great John Holt on a bill with Gregory Isaac, in Negril. Mr. Holt was in fine form; all I could think while watching the latter struggle through a 45 minute set was the old adage those who misuse their gifts the Gods take them away... .

An absolute long-running giant of reggae music, been waiting for years to see him at the fest--- this is shaping up to being a potent year.

I guess a lot of artists would fall into the following catagory but for some reason John Holt really comes to mind when it comes to a potential string of serious selections for a stage show.

Can you imagine how great a John Holt and/or Paragons set could be if he/his band/his team string together all his hits in just the right order?

Just a quick attempt at and it's a no lose situation:

[i think these were all [at least partially] penned by Holt??]

'Wear You To The Ball'
'A Love I Can Feel'
'Stick By Me'
'Happy Go Lucky Girl'
'The Tide is High'
'It's Alright' [not one of his big hits but a great tune'
'Fancy Makeup'
'Sweetie Come Brush Me'
'Tribal War'
'That song about a helicopter or something like that'
'Don't Prepar For War' [that LP he did for the Redman label was real nice]

I wouldn't even mind that most of his songs would be love songs just as long as he doesn't go into his american cover tune set [too much, or at all ]

Star-time for real. Nice add.
Yes, it would amazing if U Roy and John Holt shared the stage for a few tunes. Maybe the Tamlins as back up singers, like some of the songs on Holt's "Police In Helicopter" lp.
John Holt, U Roy & The Tamlins in one weekend..............mighty fine.

QuoteAJ
Startime for real. Nice add.
Yes, it would amazing if U Roy and John Holt shared the stage for a few tunes. Maybe the Tamlins as back up singers, like some of the songs on Holt's "Police In Helicopter" lp.
John Holt, U Roy & The Tamlins in one weekend..............mighty fine.

EXCELLENT addition! He's high on my list of artists that I really want to see live, and thank you to SNWMF for bringing him this year! I've been wanting to hear "Police In Helicopter" live for many years, and it looks like I will now get my chance.

As others have stated, I too am a huge fan of The Paragons, as well as some of John's earlier classics. And as reggaefan posted, songs such as 'Wear You To The Ball', 'A Love I Can Feel', 'Stick By Me', 'Happy Go Lucky Girl', and 'The Tide is High' are classics. I also want to add to that list songs such as "On the Beach, "I Want To Go" (sometimes called "You Never Know" and was performed by Errol Dunkley last year - love this song), and "Riding High On A Windy Day", a really, really good tune that guys like Augustus Pablo versioned the rhythm for later in the roots era.

As for some of John's newer songs, I really like "Peacemaker" and his reworking of The Paragons classic "You Will Never Know", as well as "Call On Me" from the New Horizon album.

One other thing: it's going to be funny to read some of the minds of people in the audience once John busts out "The Tide Is High". You know there is going to be somebody in the crowd that says "Hey, why is John covering a Blondie song?!" LOL!